[Warren, Mich.] Art Van Furniture announced last month the formal integration of Art Van World of Floors as a wholly owned brand of the company. The announcement was made by Art Van Elslander, founder and chairman of Art Van Furniture, and Emil Pedick, founder, CEO and president of World of Floors.

“We have big plans for Art Van World of Floors, and I personally look forward to making it the number one flooring business in the markets we serve,” said Van Elslander.

Art Van Furniture’s agreement is to purchase the balance of the business interest previously held by Pedick, who was 50 percent owner. World of Floors, No. 23 on FCW’s list of Top 50 Retailers, was founded in 1997 in Michigan and grew to 27 locations. It is currently the largest flooring specialty chain in Michigan, according to the company.

“My vision with Art Van World of Floors was to create a store-within-a-store concept that leverages the marketing and customer base of a successful retail furniture operation. We accomplished that,” said Pedick.

Kim Yost, CEO, Art Van Furniture, said the motivation behind acquiring a flooring company is that Art Van Furniture is “all about the home.”

“In 2010, we added televisions with Paul’s TV, it only made sense to bring flooring into the fold,” she said, adding that flooring consumers are the store’s target consumer.

“Our target customer is the supermom and flooring fits inside her wheelhouse. Our number one category is sofas. We are trying to create a synergy between living room and bedrooms into flooring,” Yost said.

Through the acquisition, Art Van Furniture will now become Art Van Flooring.

“From the customer touch points, AVFlooring will be unique to Art Van Flooring with its own leadership team and its own single-minded focus. It will have flooring experts — people who live and eat flooring,” Yost added. “Behind the scenes, we will be using all Art Van operational synergies such as marketing, distribution, accounts payable.”